I know we have done soups, comfort foods, appetizers, etc in the past. With our weather warming up and bikini season upon us (okay, who am I kidding - I will NOT be donning a bikini - lol), I thought it might be nice to do a main dish salad thread. Who knows? I, myself, may have started a thread on this topic in the past. Perhaps my next thread should be one on maintaining a strong memory (and/or how to use the search function on here).
I’d just like to have more main dish salads in my rotation as dh is trying to eat healthier.
I made this one last night, and Dh really liked it. I added shrimp to it. I prefer protein in my salad to help it stick to one’s ribs.
My go to dinner salad last year was a base of spinach and then some combination of garbanzo beans, goat cheese, chopped pecans, hardboiled egg, purple cabbage, radishes, onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes (depending on what I had on hand). Grilled chicken would work as the protein too. I used a balsamic vinaigrette for the dressing.
This antipasto chopped salad from Smitten Kitchen is also very popular at my house. I cut down on the meat and cheese, but it’s very flavorful. nancy’s chopped salad – smitten kitchen
I love meal salads, especially in the summer (panzanella is one of my favorites with local jersey tomatoes, plus we have some great crusty bread here and lots of local fresh mozzarella). My family loves Mediterranean quinoa salads, one has celiac so pasta salads are out (my non celiac family members only tolerate gf pasta in baked Mac and cheese). Here is an example Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Feta | foodiecrush.com
D made a terrific corn salad the other night for dinner-- fresh corn (not cooked just cut off the cob), feta, tomatoes, mint, basil, pistachios and croutons.
I have to credit @Marilyn with this, but the Cosi signature salad using this recipe was really good. It’s become part of our normal dinner rotation. We haven’t tried it with chicken yet, but I think it would be tasty.
Spelt is a type of ancient wheat. It is very high in protein. Can be found in specialty groceries or on Amazon! Farro will work, too, but spelt tastes better in this salad. It is very filling! I used to go to the PCC store next door to my workplace and buy a small carton of this salad for lunch.
After saving that recipe, I checked out a few of the suggested recipes at the bottom of the page. That just led me down a rabbit hole - I decided to look at the website’s main menu of salads - making it through only six of the 23 pages of salad recipes, saving quite a few! I know how I will be spending a portion of my rainy Saturday! I’ll be checking out their other categories as well. Most of the recipes seem pretty straight forward with ingredients I typically have on hand so I can’t wait to start trying the various salad recipes (we eat a lot of salad meals in summer using fresh veggies from our garden).
Jennifer Aniston salad of course - just made it today. I use quinoa instead of bulgur. The main ingredients are quinoa, chopped cucumbers and parsley, a can of chickpeas, chopped pistachios, lemon juice and olive oil, and feta.
I found this recipe when I was trying out Weight Watchers. It makes a great lunch salad but we’ve had it for dinner, as well. You can serve it warm or cold. I usually get a Costco rotisserie chicken and shred the meat to use in this salad. The jasmine rice is integral to the taste and fragrance in my opinion. Try it, you’ll like it!
Glad you liked the PCC recipe collection! Yes, their recipes are straightforward, and most of the dishes are either sold at their deli or have been sold there in the past.
